CHICAGO (NewsNation) — Not many NFL players last more than a decade in the league, and even fewer go on to write books — let alone wade into politics. But former NFL player Benjamin Watson isn’t like most competitors.
After playing college ball for Duke and Georgia, Watson spent more than 15 years in the league, playing tight end for a number of teams; including the New England Patriots, who took him in the first round of the 2004 draft.
Watson gained national attention during his playing days for his writings on race and faith issues.
His new book, “The New Fight for Life: Roe, Race and a Pro-life Commitment to Justice,” offers a new future for the pro-life movement in the post-Roe era and answers the question, “Where do we go from here?”
“We are in a new fight for life,” Watson said. “We are a year past Roe being overturned and I think over this last year, so many of us who call ourselves pro-life have tried to figure out what does that mean now for a pro-life movement that wants to make abortion both unthinkable and unnecessary.”
In his book, he suggests that Americans are in a new fight for life in a couple of different ways. Watson said there is an opportunity right now to show those opposed to the pro-life movement that pro-lifers do care about life after birth.
He said that oftentimes there are people who point the finger at the pro-life movement, claiming pro-lifers don’t care about human life after birth.
Watson suggested that there should be a new commitment to justice where the pro-life movement can fight for justice, housing and livable wages that impact women and men at any stage in life.
“I believe that the human person, starting from fertilization or conception to natural death, bears the image of God,” Watson said. “I believe that every person has inherent value, whether they are liberal or conservative. Whether they come from any sort of ethnic background or any socio-economic status.”
Watson continued, “When we start from the place of people having inherent dignity and value, then it allows us to engage with people that we don’t agree with in a way that is empathetic, in a way that is respectful.”